Nikola Tesla Quotes

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

Nikola Tesla(Quoted in Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication, 2008)

Everyone should consider his body as a priceless gift from one whom he loves above all, a marvelous work of art, of indescribable beauty, and mystery beyond human conception, and so delicate that a word, a breath, a look, nay, a thought may injure it.

Nikola Tesla

Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them.

Nikola Tesla(The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, 1900)

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Nikola Tesla(Modern Mechanics and Inventions, 1934)

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

Nikola Tesla(The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, 1900)

If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search... I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.

Nikola Tesla(New York Times, October 19, 1931)

But the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.

Nikola Tesla(Collier's Weekly interview, 1984)

From childhood I was compelled to concentrate attention upon myself. This caused me much suffering, but to my present view, it was a blessing in disguise for it has taught me to appreciate the inestimable value of introspection in the preservation of life, as well as a means of achievement.

The individual is ephemeral, races and nations come and pass away, but man remains. Therein lies the profound difference between the individual and the whole.

Nikola Tesla(The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, 1900)

The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter - for the future. His duty is to lay foundation of those who are to come and point the way.

Nikola Tesla(Modern Mechanics and Inventions, 1934)

Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.

Nikola Tesla(Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency, 1892)

For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one.

Nikola Tesla(The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, 1900)

Today's scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.

Nikola Tesla(Modern Mechanics and Inventions, 1934)

I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labour, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid rule, then I may be the worst of idlers. Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions - Chapter 1: Early Life, 1919)

What the result of these investigations will be the future will tell; but whatever they may be, and to whatever this principle may lead, I shall be sufficiently recompensed if later it will be admitted that I have contributed a share, however small, to the advancement of science.

Nikola Tesla(The Electrical Engineer article, June 1888)

Nature may reach the same results in many different ways.

Nikola Tesla(On Light And Other High Frequency Phenomena - A lecture held in Philadelphia, 1893)

I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me.
I loved that pigeon as a man loves a women, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.

Nikola Tesla

My belief is firm in a law of compensation. The true rewards are ever in proportion to the labour and sacrifices made.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions - Chapter 7, 1919)

What has the future in store for this strange being, born of a breath, of perishable tissue, yet Immortal, with his powers fearful and Divine? What magic will be wrought by him in the end? What is to be his greatest deed, his crowning achievement?

Nikola Tesla(Man's Greatest Achievement)

But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions - Chapter 3, 1919)

The last 29 days of the month are the hardest.

Nikola Tesla

The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

Nikola Tesla

The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.

Nikola Tesla(Quoted in Denver Rocky Mountains News, Jan 16, 1910)

The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions - Chapter 1: Early Life, 1919)

A single ray of light from a distant star falling upon the eye of a tyrant in bygone times, may have altered the course of his life, may have changed the destiny of nations, may have transformed the surface of the globe, so intricate, so inconceivably complex are the processes of nature.

Nikola Tesla(On Light And Other High Frequency Phenomena - A lecture held in Philadelphia, 1893)

Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.

Nikola Tesla(Quoted in The Nikola Tesla Treasury, 2007)

Invention is the most important product of man's creative brain. The ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of human nature to human needs.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions, 1919)

Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.

Nikola Tesla(Tesla's dialogue with a young Yugoslavian, 1927)

A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results.

Nikola Tesla (My Inventions - Chapter 6, 1919)

Back in the deep recesses of the brain was the solution, but I could net yet give it outward expression.

Nikola Tesla(My Inventions - Chapter 3, 1919)

Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.